Starting potty training - shall we have a support thread?

[sweetkitty]

Thought it would be a good idea if we had a support thread for us lovely people starting potty training to share tips etc

I'm on Day 3 of potty training DD2 (2.4yo) so far it's been completely horrendous nothing in the potty so far.

She pees on the floor (sorry am Scottish so a wee is small, pee is wee IYSWIM) and I'll say "DD2 where should that pee pee be" "in the potty Mummy not on the floor" she sits on her potty fine but pee going in potty is not happening for us yet.

We did really well yesterday - no accidents at all, but he did not need to poo in the day as he woke up with one in his nappy. Today we have only had one wee accident, which he came to tell me about, but he just poos in his pants. Any ideas?

DS is 2.6 and we are day 4. Happy to wee in the toilet when we put him there. But he will still wee in his pants and poo if we don't get to him.So we have gone through 6 pairs of trousers and pants on day 3. He doesn't ask and although I have gone through the whole thing every day, still no sign of it registering! In fact, he resists with forceful wriggles if we try to get him to do a poo on the loo or potty. (he despises the potty - much happier on a comfy trainer seat on the loo)

I think I'm giving up - dd keeps telling me she doesn't want to go on the potty - I think the novelty value has worn off, and I don't want to force the issue. Hopefully the lure of big girl pants will work at some point in the future

Well, DD is now on day 14. Three fairly long trips into town, all sucessful.

Put into big girl bed last night (so she can get up for potty). She took her pull-up off, but woke herself 2am, and was dry in morning as well! No accidents all week.

2nd night dry here

But does wee in potty, and if we don't deal with it straight away, pours it on the floor

can i please join you lovely ladies.
my lo is 2.7 and we have started today under duress on his part and my mom.
we have been up since six and he has done 1 wee in toilet and we have been going up to loo every half hour so i keep my fingers crossed.
i have to admit i am nervous of potty training but ds has become such a nightmare with trying to cahange his nappy he is fine with the actual nappy but if you go anywhere near his pesholino[willy] he goes mental and i mean mental even when he is in the bath!
so i rang my mom and she said to potty train him and that it was disgusting that we all wait and that if i was a good mother and my son was bright enough we would both get it and he would be dry by the time we visit them in august[they live in orknies]

hello - just a thought from me - I started DS a week ago and so far only one accident... maybe so many accidents mean best waiting for a couple of months????

we've been doing it for a few days. one poo accident altogether (which i was relieved about anyway as she was with-holding i'm sure, she never does poos on the toilet) and either one or no pee accident per day.

tell me about the night-time thing, ladies. i'm putting dd into a pull-up but she doesn't like it. it is, however, sodden by morning. she's 2.5.

I'm doing pants when awake, pull ups for midday nap (I call them pants too so he doesn't get confused) then nappy at night.

I'm going to stop the pull ups if he's dry during naps over the next couple of weeks (only one wet so far over last week), then ditto when the nappies are dry at night will stop (although I expect this will be quite a few more months)

i'm doing pants for naps, which is fine, but dd has twigged that all she has to do to get out of her cot is demand to go for a peepee. she was in a pull-up last night for bed but was using potty training as an excuse to stay up.

DS is not doing brilliantly although he wee's happily on the loo,he will wee happily in his pants too. But he will not go anywhere near the loo for No 2's! Almost to the point where he's rather burst than do it. Nappy on at bedtime and he does it then. I'm alomist at the point of saying give up and try again in a couple of weeks.

okay, just a little bit of wee during her nap but she stopped it and did the bulk in the potty, so that's good. and no accidents at nursery so good again. but she is waiting until her nappy goes on at night to do a poo... how can i get round that? normally she does one at lunchtime, she must be holding it in. and i'm not surprised, tbh, because she does like to go away and do a funny little lean into it, iykwim, so the experience of being on the loo is not exactly conducive for her.

anyone else had this?

apart from swisscheese who is a dirty rotten quitter. (seriously, give up if it's not goiing well).

Hi Aitch

I had the same thing re: potty training at night, in that DD was up alot in the evening last week. So, I put her cot into bed form, and gave her the potty in her room. Now there is no excuse.

She is still getting used to the freedom a bed gives her ( AKA not settling well) but last night was night 3, and she settled within 1.5 hours, which is much improved on the last two nights).

WRT the night-time nappy thing, we night-trained by accident. She has always had a wet nappy in the morning, but on day 1 of big girl bed, we checked on her before we went to bed (we normally don't because she is such a light sleeper, but I needed to be sure she hadn't done herself an injury!) and she had taken her pull-up off.

TBH, thought process was short - rather change a wet sheet than wrestle child into pull-up and face another 2 hours of settling. She woke at 2am, used the potty. In the morning, she woke up and was dry.

Last two nights, she was offered pull-up and declined. Both mornings she has woken up dry. Our only issue is that she then pours her potty on the floor, so her room still stinks of wee . But we are hoping the novelty will go in time.

Re: Poos, my inclination would be to skip the pull-up, see if DD can stay dry at night, and then there would be nothing to hold the poo for, IFYSWM. Would she do a poo on the potty, rather than toilet?

Sorry for such a long essay, but am amazed that DD has just 'got' toilet training, esp at night.

PS, She did wake up wet after her nap yesterday, and we definitely wouldn't have changed her to big girl bed without buying a stairgate for her doorway.

The last few evenings have been fairly raucous, so can't imagine what it would have been like without the stairgate to limit her!!

Swisscheese, have you thought of letting him run around naked on the bottom half? You might be able to see his willy change (I have two DDs, but had heard that little boys willies go a little stiff before a wee?) and get him there before.

My DD wouldn't use the potty, but after 50 or so trips up to the toilet in one day, I was eating my dinner, and told her she had to either use the potty or wait. She used the potty! I think it is just getting that first one.

On the other hand, I tried DD twice before. The first time (2) she was distraught that she had an accident, so abandoned for fear of damaging her. The second time, (2.1) she didn't care less if she peed on the floor, and wouldn't use the potty. This time, I offered her the chance to wear big girl pants, she declined, and a few weeks later (2.5) I simply told her it was time to say bye bye to nappies in the daytime. That was it.

Perhaps DS isn't quite emotionally ready? Does he seem physically aware of wees and poos? What tipped it for me was that DD wanted her nappy changed after every wee in the night, and was calling out from her cot that she had done a poo, when in fact it was wees. Within a few weeks she was saying that she had done a wee (she had worked out that it was different from a poo).

Lou, I think he is aware of the difference between the two as he says what he is doing. He's quite happy to pee in the potty and the loo but equally as happy to just pee in his pants / nappy. He told me clearly today that he didn't want to use the toilet to do a poo and then got in a right tizzy when I tried to sit him on it for any length of time. I am encouraging him by praising him for even doing a 'trump' on the loo as it's getting there in some small way, and we then go and pop a star on his chart.

I could have cringed yesterday when my Mum came to visit doing the 'checking on how I'm progressing' and when I explained how things were going well in some areas and not in others, she told DS off and said he was horrible, dirty and needed to grow up. He looked shattered - I did support his progress and say how well he had done, but today he has refused pants and got very tearful. So I may give him a break and try again in a few weeks.

Aitch: Just read your comments and you made me laugh soooooo much!!!! Yep - I'm nearly on the edge of being a dirty rotten quitter........ITS SO DARN HARD! All this pregnancy lark was easy by comparaison

Oh, SwissCheese, your poor DS. It is really hard when other people say things to your children that you wouldn't!

I reckon a break is the way to go.

god, totally, you and ds shouldn't have to put up wiith that from your mum. mothers, eh? who'd have em? i'd give up immediately just to disassociate myself from all the rubbish she said, tbh. (btw i definitely praise for a fart on the loo, i think it's the same process essentially.)

today we had a wee accident during an extended and possibly foolish tickling incident with dh but she held in the bulk of it and asked to go to the loo. then another accident at nursery.

thing is, though, she's getting a rash at the top of her legs, so i think she's leaking a wee bit then stopping it and not saying anything. i feel like i'm asking her about the loo every five mins as it is, i don't wannt to pester her with a knicker check as well... what to do?

Clever girl holding on to wees during a tickling session - not sure my pelvic floor would hold it these days .

Another poster on a different thread mentioned asking their DC to try and sit on the potty to see if there was a 'surprise wee' there after all. Could you try that, so only ask her every so often, but incorporate a sit on the potty?

Or just persevere and hope she gets more consistent.

I have to say that I think when they are ready, they are ready. This is attempt 3 for me with DD, and she is dry day & night. Other 2 tries disaster. (She's now almost 2.6)

At home with a bare bum dd uses the potty 100%. With knickers on she still wets herself 50% of the time but is starting to at least tell me before she goes, it's just a case of getting her there in time. I think a lot of the problem is that she doesn't yet know how to pull her own trousers/knickers down-any tips on that?

Lou/Aitch: thanks for your support. Bless his cotton socks he said he was 'trying really hard to use the toilet but it's too difficult'. He looked really miserable. So I'm going to give hima break, and book some holiday in 10days when it's just him and I and concentrate on him without interruptions from Critical Mothers (Oh gawd, someday I'm sure he'll say I am one!)

no trousers, according to the nursery. little girls in socks and skirts for two reasons, it gives them the visual ick when they see the pee and is less to pull down.

interestingly, i thought it was too cold for socks today, put dd in light jeans and she pissed herself twice and pooed once, which is our worst day since we started. it's been a week now, i'm not sure whether i should leave it or persevere. she's been pretty good, it's me who can't be arsed taking her to the loo all the time... wish she would use a potty.

It's two weeks today and DS has definitely got the idea- yippee Last accident was Monday morning when he was trying to get DP's attention to use potty but DP was doing DD's physio and didn't notice (I was away...). BUT only in the past day has DS started to ask to use the potty/toilet and has started to be able to hold in the wee until we get to one. Before that I was just plonking him on every hour or so.

I definitely found it easiest to start off with bare bottom half, and we really were hermits for nearly 4 full days to give him a good chance to get the hang of it... Now he's fascinated with directing his pee- squirting different parts of the potty etc.....and generally fascinated with his "winky"- boys eh!! I still do a very over-enthusiastic poo/pee dance everytime he goes to the loo....but hey one can never have too much praise....

Swisscheese- at your mum. Any negative comments completely destroy my DS so big hugs to you and your DS. I think it sounds like a break's called for so he doesn't feel any pressure- pressure's something no toddler ever works well with. He will get there just not yet (my DS is now 3.1yrs and it's taken til now to get him trained without tears and fairly painlessly).

How's everyone else doing?